Grandpa
and Grandma Beck lived in their farm home with two small children.

A man in a horse drawn carriage arrived
late afternoon requesting shelter. This was a common enough thing.
Catherine and Gottlieb Beck and their two small children lived alone on
the farm but they offered the man a meal, a place for his horses and a
bed for the night.

All went to bed and for a while all was
calm.

What the man didn't tell them was that
he had just sold his cattle and had quite a sum of money on his person.
He was on his way home with the money from the sale.

Grandma (Catherine) Beck woke up in the
middle of the night to take care of one of the children. She heard
a noise and saw a shadow. She realized there was a man coming into
the house.

She called "Gottlieb! Get your
gun!"

Gottlieb, ever vigilant, got his gun
and raced downstairs, yelling in German and English and made quite a
commotion. The robber(s) ran away and were never heard from again.

The man who was staying in their house
explained to them that he thought he might have been followed and that
was one of the reasons he had asked for shelter at their house and why
he had stopped before dark. He wasn't sure he was being followed
though so he didn't say anything.

We don't know what happened to the man,
but we hope he got home safely with his money!